History of how Guardian Art was founded

Guardian Art was founded by Caleb A. Madrid and Andy T. Nguyen after they had discovered what Martial Arts really was. The two of them had literally grown up in the Martial Arts industry since they were born, and were elite members within the original and internationally known West Coast Next Generation Demonstration Team (now known as the West Coast Action Team), which was the number one Martial Arts demonstration team in the world. During their experiences with this team, Caleb & Andy got the opportunity to travel all around the world from Asia to the Middle East to Europe and all over the Americas for performances on stage, TV, and even movies. They were exposed to all types of Martial Arts and met with the most famous masters from all continents of earth.

(The above video shows Andy and Caleb performing in New York City with the West Coast Next Generation Demo Team at Wesley Snipe’s Tribute to the Masters of Martial Arts on the TNT network)

They trained with everyone from the Monks of the Shoalin Temple to the Korean Tigers Tae Kwon Do Team to the Beijing Wushu Team to Free Running & Parkour legends, the “Yamakasi,” to Gymnastics legends Shannon Miller, Dominique Dawes, and Bart Connor to Frank & Ken Shamrock and the Gracie family. And, they held conversations with well known martial arts masters like Stephen K. Hayes, Chuck Norris, Jackie Chan, Steven Seagal, Wesley Snipes, Jean Claude Van Damme, Jhoon Ree, Dan Inosanto, Tadashi Yamashita, Royce & Rickson Gracie, and so on.

(The picture above shows how Andy and Caleb met many famous Martial Artists such as Steven Seagal)

Through their vast experiences, they learned what seemed to be everything about the Martial Arts industry. And it is from these experiences that they learned that the Martial Arts world wasn’t really what they thought it was. The masters weren’t like the masters they had imagined from the stories. They witnessed some use drugs and others manipulate people. They caught some having intimate affairs with under aged girls. They observed how many were greedy and how almost all wanted to be desired and admired. They saw a lack of wisdom, respect, and ethics. Something was wrong. Caleb & Andy had always believed that Martial Arts masters were great heroes full of wisdom that helped everyone and made ethical decisions like in films…but this was definitely not the case.

They both left the team as they entered their adulthood and began their journey to understanding what Martial Arts really was. Through their research, they learned that “Martial Arts” actually means skills used for warfare, whether it be Eastern or Western. It did not mean self defense, and it definitely did not mean helping people. They confirmed the truth within this definition when they realized that all Martial Arts (with the exception of a few misinterpretations) had originated from warfare with the purpose to serve warfare. Andy and Caleb were confused.

What have they been really learning all their lives?

Ninjas were assassins. Why were they admiring assassins?

Samurais were servants to a dictatorship. Why would they want to be a samurai?

Was Martial Arts even what they wanted to do?

They realized that the real modern day Martial Arts was actually all the horrific killing, village bombing, and mass destruction that was occurring in warfare. Caleb and Andy did not want to do real Martial Arts…they wanted to stop it.

But the answer to stop it definitely was not in any karate, tae kwon do, or any other ancient Martial Arts that had now become just a form of sport and entertainment with an occasional preaching about respect, discipline, and other codes of conduct.

There wasn’t really anything that existed that could teach them how to become the great masters that they had imagined. They had to find the answers on their own.

How does one become extremely coordinated?

How does one effectively protect themselves and others…without injuring the attacker?

How does one learn to consistently make ethical decisions to improve the lives around them?

Through extensive research, they succeeded in finding the answers to questions like these and discovered concepts and workable technologies that others could benefit from. This growing collection of concepts and technologies is Guardian Art.

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